Inscribed in pencil at lower left of mat: Finished proof. Final lettering put on; numbered "9" (i.e. 8, with number 7 missing from the original set) at lower right hand corners of the mat opening; on verso of mounting sheet: Harboro' Sands; print blind stamped with Turner's studio monogram stamp below the image, centered between the name of the artist and engraver.
India paper proof for a steel engraved vignette by J.C. Allen after J.M.W. Turner, entitled "Harborough Sands"; possibly an unpublished vignette for Turner's "Picturesque views in England and Wales", or an illustration for the unpublished "Holloway's Continuation of England and Wales". Cf. Rawlinson.
Print mounted on backing sheet 352 x 311 mm
The final print in a set of 8 progressive proofs on india paper for Turner's vignette, some of them touched by the artist.
The finished state with final lettering.
Print shows a flat, sandy shore, with many figures of fishermen and women in foreground and a headland across a bay to left, with a tower or a lighthouse on a point. Fishing-boats are shown ashore on right and the setting sun is reflected across the water.